A state appeals court has upheld $900,000 in damages and attorneys' fees to an East Bay woman who was fired after missing two weeks at work because of an auto accident.

After she was dismissed as a customer-service representative for Central Freight Lines in Hayward, Louise Pena had to turn to a food bank to feed her family of five, saw her home placed in foreclosure and lost her health coverage, the court said.

The firing from her $15-an-hour job "destroyed her family for a period of time," George Oliver, a lawyer for Pena, said Tuesday. He said Pena, who lives near Vallejo and is the sole support of her disabled husband and three children, finally found another job after two years and was able to keep her home.

Central Freight Lines' lawyer was unavailable for comment.

Pena, then 35, was hired in 2004 and was described by co-workers as skilled and well-liked, the First District Court of Appeal said in last week's ruling.

As she was driving to work on Interstate 80 in March 2008, a metal bar crashed through her windshield, narrowly missing her head. A doctor diagnosed back and neck injuries and kept her off work for a week. Other physicians told her to take another week off because of continued back pain along with migraine headaches, anxiety and sleeplessness.

Pena's employers raised no objections at the time, and she returned to work two weeks after the accident, the court said.

The Hayward terminal's new manager, however, had already decided to fire Pena, the court said. She was suspended the day she returned and dismissed three days later with a written notice that cited excessive absenteeism.

The manager and other officials later testified that they had fired Pena because of her frequent absences in previous years and because of the declining economy. But after a nonjury trial, Judge Gail Bereola of Alameda County Superior Court said the company had no record of Pena's previous absences, that its stated reasons for her firing were pretexts, and that it had violated state disability laws in dismissing her.

Bereola awarded Pena $470,000 in damages, mostly for emotional distress, and $431,000 in attorneys' fees. The appeals court said her decision was supported by "ample evidence," including the financial and personal hardship Pena suffered.

Oliver, Pena's lawyer, said Central Freight Lines had initially told Pena it would not have to pay any damages to her because its trucks and other property were all in other states. The firm relented after her lawyers started contacting the company's customers.